PIERS Copeland’s season best performance saw the Welsh runner finish eighth at the World Indoor Tour Final in Birmingham last month.

Former Wimborne Athletic Clubs runner Copeland has competed in three events so far in 2023, gradually seeing performances improve.

The 24-year-old finished ninth in a World Athletics Indoor Tour Silver meeting in Val-de-Reuil, recording a time of 3:43.06 at the start of February, before shaving that time down to 3:42.86 a week later in a meeting in Metz.

There was a significant improvement at the World Indoor Tour Final in Birmingham at the end of the month, Copeland finishing the 1500m race in 3:40.64.

Scot Neil Gourley, was the clear winner, breaking the British indoor record for the 1500m in the process with his time of 3:32.48.

Copeland is currently ranked 122nd in the world, and in November, he was nominated as one of 66 athletes to join the UK Athletics Olympic World Class Programme for 2022/23.

For any athlete to be nominated for the WCP, they must have “realistic potential and demonstrable performance capability and capacity to make the necessary progress to achieve a medal at least in one of the next two Olympic Games”.